Electronic card with a programmable magnetic stripe

ABSTRACT

An electronic card with a programmable magnetic band which operates to emulate a magnetic stripe on a payment card. The card connects to a smartphone for reducing the amount of cards in a wallet using a NFC protocol. The electronic card with programmable magnetic band includes a magnetic stripe emulator, NFC communication unit, energy harvesting battery management, and high level security. Buttons are used to enter a personal code for using a default card. The card can be used on all payment terminals, and devices that can read magnetic stripes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to an electronic card and morespecifically it relates to an electronic card with a programmablemagnetic stripe which is programmed by transferring data from asmartphone for reducing the number of debit, credit and other paymentcards in a wallet. A near field communication connection (NFC or RFID)is used for transferring data to and from a smartphone.

2. Description of the Prior Art

People typically carry around most of their payment cards such as creditand debit cards in a wallet or purse, and to use a particular card, thedesired card is selected and then removed from the wallet or purse.Users want a more convenient way to handle their payment cards, butexisting solutions all have problems which limit their use. Somecompanies have tried to solve this by having users load paymentinformation in their phones and pay with near field communication (NFC),barcodes or other wireless signals using their phone. There are manyproblems with this. One problem is NFC equipped payment terminals arenot in common use in the United States. To make NFC (or other wirelessmethods) popular, NFC equipped payment terminals would need to beavailable at substantially every merchant in the U.S. This massdeployment will take years and cost billions of dollars. Also, to use amobile phone as a payment card substitute, a user would be unable to payif their phone was unavailable, such as out of battery. Also, sincepayment terminals in places such as restaurants are usually in a backroom area, users would have to give other people (such as waiters at arestaurant) their cell phones if they wanted to pay. Security is also abig problem for traditional payment cards and smartphone paymentsystems. Lost and stolen wallets contribute to a large percentage ofcredit card fraud. All of these problems and more are solved with theinvention described herein.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is an electronic payment card with a form factor similarto a standard credit card and includes a programmable magnetic stripe.It can replace all payment (credit, debit, gift, etc.) cards which areordinarily carried by a user in a wallet or purse. A battery on theelectronic card used to power devices on the card can be rechargedwirelessly. The card has the same dimensions as a normal debit/creditcard with all electronics built into the card. Associated with the cardis a prior art magnetic stripe reader that can connect to a smart phone.After a user has swiped all their current cards into an applicationinstalled on the smart phone using the magnetic stripe reader, themagnetic stripe reader is only needed to add more cards or for purposesunrelated to the invention. Alternatively, information for the card canbe manually entered by the user using a smart phone application. To usea particular one of the cards which have been swiped or otherwiseentered as described above, the user selects the desired card using asmart phone application, and the phone downloads information pertainingto that card which is stored on a server, and then securely transfersthe card data to the electronic card. The programmable magnetic stripecan be programmed so to any existing magnetic stripe reader, theprogrammed magnetic stripe is identical to the one on the originalpayment card which was selected by the user.

The device may also store the loaded card information on a securestorage element in the card, a secure storage element in the phone, orboth. The device may also store some of the information in a server,some of the information on the phone and some of the information on theelectronic card. Since all the information is split up, if one source ofthe information is compromised, complete credit card data is not exposedsince the remaining information needed to make use of the card is stillsecure.

A user can also press a recall button on the electronic card whichautomatically loads the last card that was loaded after a personal codeis entered provided the electronic card is near the phone which thencontacts the server to download the card information.

For most cards, no complete credit card information is permanentlystored on the card or phone. However, one of the loaded cards can bedesignated as a default card which is stored and can be used on paymentterminals by accessing buttons (touch sensors) used to enter a personalcode. In one embodiment of the card, payment card information is storedin a secure storage element inside the card. This is necessary forsituations where the phone cannot contact the server to download thecard information for any reason. That is, in this situation, theinvented electronic card functions as an ordinary credit card, the onlydifference being that the personal code must first be entered. Althoughpower is also needed, since the charge in the battery is easilymaintained as described herein, loss of power is normally not an issue.

There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, some of the features ofthe invention in order that the detailed description thereof may bebetter understood, and in order that the present contribution to the artmay be better appreciated. There are additional features of theinvention that will be described hereinafter.

In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of theinvention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is notlimited in its application to the details of construction or to thearrangements of the components set forth in the following description orillustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of otherembodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways.Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminologyemployed herein are for the purpose of the description and should not beregarded as limiting.

Other advantages of the present invention will become obvious to thereader and it is intended that these objects and advantages are withinthe scope of the present invention. To the accomplishment of the above,this invention may be embodied in the form illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, attention being called to the fact, however, thatthe drawings are illustrative only, and that changes may be made in thespecific construction illustrated and described and still be within thescope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various other objects, features and attendant advantages of the presentinvention will become fully appreciated as the same becomes betterunderstood when considered in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which like reference characters designate the same orsimilar parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the various subsystems formingthe present invention.

FIGS. 2 a and 2 b are front and backs view of an electronic card used toimplement the present invention showing the buttons, LEDs and magneticband.

FIG. 3 is a detailed view of coils which form the magnetic band used tofunction as the magnetic stripe on a traditional payment card.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the processing performed by a processoron the electronic card used to generate signals which are sent to thecoils to enable the magnetic band to emulate the functionality of themagnetic stripe on a traditional payment card.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Turning now descriptively to the drawings, in which similar referencecharacters denote similar elements throughout the several views, FIG. 1shows in block diagram form magnetic stripe emulator 11, NFCcommunication module 13, energy harvesting battery management module 15,battery 17, buttons 19, LEDs 21 and smart card contacts 23.

FIG. 2 a shows the front of the card including a button 19 which wouldtypically be a power on/off button, LEDs 21 which are off, blink orsolid to display different status as explained below and display 27.FIG. 2 b shows the rear of the card with programmable magnetic band 29which is programmed based on the operation of magnetic stripe emulator25 and buttons 19 for providing various inputs to the card. Of course,the specific arrangement of buttons, LEDs, and display can varysubstantially from that shown in FIGS. 2 a and 2 b. Each side of thecard can have more or fewer buttons, LEDs and displays, and theirspecific positions can be completely different.

Existing credit cards typically include two magnetic tracks on thestripe referred to as track 1 and track 2. Track 1 is encoded using theInternational Air Transport Association (IATA) standard. Track 2 isencoded using the American Banking Association (ABA) standard. It isalso possible for a card to have only one track or three track. If athird track is present, its format would typically be defined by theissuer. The stripe is strictly delimited where track 1, track 2 andtrack 3, if present, are located based on the ISO/IEC7811 standard usedto define characteristics for many types of identification cards. Alltracks are encoded using a technique commonly called Bi-phase mark code(BMC), also defined as part of the ISO/IEC 7811 standard. This encodingallows a magnetic reader to decode the data encoded into the magneticfields generated when the card is swiped. The magnetic fields decodedusing the BMC generate a binary stream of data that represent in digitalterms information encoded on the magnetic tracks of the card.

This binary stream is then interpreted to ASCII characters using analgorithm that is defined using a standard for each track of the card,being the IATA standard for track 1 and the ABA standard for track 2.Both are standardized on ISO/IEC 7813 which is used for financialinformation.

Emulator 11 does this process in reverse. It generates a trackrepresented in ASCII characters based on the user input, then dependingof what track is being emulated, it generates a bit stream using one ofthe IATA or ABA standards. Based on this binary data, the emulatorgenerates an encoded magnetic field using BMC to activate the track'scoil when high (binary 1) and deactivating it when low (binary 0).

The magnetic field is generated by running a current through the coil orcoils corresponding to track 1 or track 2, turning it on, and off asneeded to generate the 0's and 1's. The 1 and 0 (binary data) aregenerated following the BMC encoding. It can be thought of as a complexMorse code, but instead of using sequences of short and long beeps,sequences of magnetic pulses are used. A group of magnetic pulses can bedecoded as a 1234 or BILL SMITH if the correct scheme is followed by thedecoder.

The magnetic fields themselves do not change. But the generating currentis turned on and off generating a stream of magnetic pulses that can bedecoded as data. As previously noted, the pulses are like a complexMorse code in that the beep or pulse is always the same, but strings ofpulses represent a different character depending on its length (e.g.,long or short) and the other pulses being used in a particular sequence.

Each magnetic track is formed using a coil with one or more sections.Although the coils used provide the magnetic stripe functionality areconstructed differently from a typical magnetic stripe seen on a creditcard, to a magnetic stripe reader, there is no meaningful difference.

The core of the coil is made of ferromagnetic material, such aspermalloy, but other similar metals can be used as well. The core of thecoil is wrapped in copper wire or a similar electrically conductivematerial with at least several hundred turns. The core does not touchthe copper directly, as the wire is enameled. Some sections can have asmall amount of copper wraps, such as 20, while other sections, such asthe main section can have more than 700 wraps. There typically would betwo coils to emulate two tracks, but a third coil could be added toemulate a third track.

FIG. 3 shows one such coil having three separate sections or windings31, 33 and 35 on a single core 37. Each winding has two ends 31 a and 31b, 33 a and 33 b, and 35 a and 35 b. Each end is connected to a sourceof power which provides the current needed to generate the necessarypulses to the coil so that when the card is swiped, the magnetic cardreader is provided with the necessary information. As described indetail below, emulator 11 is used to generate the necessary signals toproduce these pulses. In one embodiment, emulator 11 is created byprogramming MCU 25 as described below which produces an output which isinterfaced using standard circuit elements to generate the currentapplied to the ends of each winding. Thus, although emulator 11 is shownin FIG. 1 as being separate from MCU 25, which would be the case if aemulator 11 is created as a separate part, in the embodiment asdisclosed herein, emulator 11 is part of the programming of MCU 25.

The windings 33 and 35 at both ends of the coil for track 2 are used todetect the magnetic reader. When the card is swiped into a magneticreader the programming in the MCU senses this movement of the read headusing these coils by the Hall effect and then initiates the emulationprocess.

As noted above, running current through the coil generates a magneticfield. The invention uses the principle of running current through thecoil using the BMC algorithm as explained above to generate a validmagnetic track recognizable by all existing readers.

One way to make such a coil would be to use insulated 38AWG copper wirewrapped around the core with about 750 turns for track 1, and for track2, a central wrap of about 650 turns and two wraps of about 40 turn eachone at both extremes as shown in FIG. 3 which represents a single trackwherein the coil has three sections.

The core of a soft ferromagnetic material such as permalloy or soft ironwith a length of 7.5 cm, a width of 2.5 mm and thickness of 0.3 mm isabout the size of a typical credit/debit card magnetic stripe.Preferably, the insulated wire is glued to the core to preventmisalignment. The DC resistance of the coil is 11 Ohms, operating at afrequency 150 kHz to 200 kHz with current up to 20 mA.

Although the core can be made using a soft iron such as pure annealediron, an alloy commonly referred as permalloy is preferable because ithas very high magnetic permeability, which would allow the coil to useless energy per swipe and generate a greater magnetic field, thusallowing readers to obtain a more accurate read.

Battery 17 may be an ultrathin rechargeable lithium polymer batteryavailable from a variety of sources, but other ultra thin batteriescould be used as well.

The magnetic stripe emulator 11 and magnetic band 29 on the card mimicthe characteristics of a magnetic stripe on a standard payment cardusing techniques to transmit one or more electromagnetic fields as notedabove to couple with a read-head of an electromagnetic reader such amagnetic stripe reader or other methods. The magnetic stripe emulatormay detect the presence of a reading device using the magnetic signalsemitted by the reader which cause changes in capacitance of coilsforming band 29, letting the processor know that the card is placed on areader so it can emit the expected information encoded aselectromagnetic fields. The detector may be one of the coils or anyother inductor component. Multiple coils (or other devices) may beprovided to help the processor know the kind of device that is readingthe card, using this information to modify the electromagnetic fieldthat is about to be emitted to better fit into the reading device.

The emulator is based on Oersted's law that describes the capacity ofconductors to create a magnetic field by moving electrical charges onthem. All the chips and parts are connected using copper traces orequivalent. They may also be connected using resistors to limit thecurrent flow or capacitors that are used for several reasons such assmoothing the voltage input to the various components on the card. Thecircuits on the card may also use transistors to control larger currentflows that the integrated chips are not able to handle or to control thepower source of the entire circuit (battery or directly from theelectromagnetic field of the NFC). Some parts are used to provideinductance to the system. Parts may be encapsulated into surface mountdevice (SMD) packages or directly drawn into the circuit board. They areused to match the resonance required for the contactless communicationor for the contactless power charging. The specifics of theseinterfacing components are not needed for a proper understanding of theinvention and are well within the abilities of skilled circuitdesigners.

All of the card's components interact with other components using coppertraces or equivalent. Other than the magnetic card reader, the carditself interacts with external devices such as smart phones using radiosignals or equivalent in the 13.56 MHz frequency currently used by RFIDor NFC devices. Any other frequency is invisible and harmless to thecard because the matching circuit on it is established to resonate atthe 13.56 Mhz. Of course, the invention is not limited to thisfrequency, and other frequencies used by NFC or other wireless devicescould also be utilized.

NFC unit 13 is an NFC, energy harvester and communications chip whichmay be implemented using part PN5120A0HN1 available from NXPSemiconductors. This chip or equivalent chip with NFC/RFID ability orother wireless communication ability is used as a medium to interactwith external devices such as cell phones, smart phones and the like andto emulate a contactless bank/ATM/credit (or other) cards. It will reactto a NFC device only if it can use a predetermined protocol such as aNFC enabled phone with a properly configured application which has beendownloaded and installed on the phone; in any other case, it will justuse the energy to charge the battery 17 and nothing more. It may beplaced on a charging device which emits an NFC field and it will chargethe battery only when it needs it. To charge the card battery, the userneeds to place the card near an NFC enabled reader device for someminutes or insert it in a smartcard reader. The card may or may notinclude smart card contacts 23 which would allow it to be inserted intothe smartcard reader to be charged. Although such contacts would bephysical contacts on the front, or rear of the card, since such contactsare standard elements and are not needed for a proper understanding ofthe invention, they are not further described herein. Or the card mayinclude a separate charger that can charge the card with the phone or acharger that can charge the card through an outlet or computer. Thecharging method may be used in other devices as well.

NFC unit 13 harvests energy from NFC/RFID fields for use by battery 17which may be implemented using part M24LR16E-RMC6T available fromSTMicroelectronics or equivalent. NFC unit 13 harvests the energy,filters it and provides an output to be used in the circuit. If the cardis outside a predetermined activation timeframe such as eight minutes orother time which begins by the user pressing one or more buttons 19 andit is swiped or inserted on a smartcard reader it will not react. Itwill react to a NFC device only if the uses a specified protocol. Thiscan be accomplished using a NFC enabled phone with an appropriatelyconfigured application loaded. The specifics of such phone applicationare well known to persons skilled in the art and are not needed for anunderstanding of the invention. Otherwise, it will just use the energyto charge the battery and nothing more. It may be placed on a chargingdevice which emits an NFC field and it will charge the battery only whenit needs it.

Thus, to charge the battery 17, the user needs to place the card near anNFC enabled reader device for some minutes or insert it in a smartcardreader. The specifics of the charging functionality including faulthandling and the like are well known in the art.

Battery management unit 15 may be implemented using a SC824ULTRTavailable from Semtech or equivalent to charge battery 17. If thebattery is already fully charged, this chip will provide the energydirectly to the rest of the circuits.

Battery management unit 15 receives the energy from the NFC unit 13 andsends it to battery 17 for charging. Battery management unit 15 can alsoreceive energy or signals from the smartcard contacts 23 when available.Thus, when battery management unit 15 has any external source of energyavailable, it will charge the battery if it required. If the batterydoes not require a charge, battery management unit 15 will transfer thisenergy to the rest of the circuit which will not use the battery and usethe harvested energy directly.

In one embodiment microcomputer unit (MCU) 25 is implemented using partno. STM32L151C6U6 available from STMicroelectronics or equivalent lowpower MCU. The MCU handles all the interfaces, stores any required data,performs encryption/decryption, etc. It processes the instructions sentby the external smartphone (or cell phone) application and modifies thecard operation. The processor may also have its own application thatassists the card to communicate to a phone, other cards, paymentdevices, and networks. It also may use the information from the buttonsand communicate to the LEDs to provide user input and output, have alockout timer, help with security and more. The specifics of theprogramming of the MCU are not important for an understanding of theinvention and, except for the emulator functionality are well within theabilities of those skilled in the art based on the descriptions providedherein.

All the emulator programming and other data storage requirements can beincluded in memory within the MCU. However, external (to the MCU) memorymay used to store card information on the card, such as a secure storageelement for the default card data.

Programming for emulator 11 will now be described with reference to FIG.4.

Retrieve necessary data 41: The data needed to be represented on themagnetic track is stored in multiple locations, such as on a secureserver, on the card, from the mobile phone, etc. The necessary data isretrieved from the locations where stored.

Concatenate the data and add sentinel and separator characters 43: Thedata for a valid track is built from the data retrieved. Typically, thedata is in or is converted to ASCII format and concatenated together inthe order expected by the reader. The first, separator and lastcharacters on the tracks are always the same and are as defined by theIATA and ABA standards. The first character is called the start sentineland is usually % for IATA and; for ABA. The last character is called theend sentinel and is usually ? or IATA and ? for ABA. Separatorcharacters are placed between fields such as account number, name,expiration date, etc. The separator characters are usually ̂ for IATAand = for ABA. The length and type of data for each field are asspecified by the IATA and ABA standards.

Generate the LRC 45: A longitudinal redundancy check (LRC) is acharacter used to check the integrity of the information on the magnetictrack. It is calculated using the other characters being emulated forthe track according to well known techniques and is located after theend sentinel character.

Generate a binary stream 47: Track 1 uses IATA standard and track 2 usesABA standard. Each IATA character is made of 6 bits and each ABAcharacter is made of 4 bits. The specific encoding for each character isas required by the IATA and ABA standards.

Decision block 49—For track 1, append 22 “0” bits 51. For track 2 append62 “0” bits 53. The BMC encoding needs the zeroes at the start and endto synchronize a clock signal used to enable the data to be decoded whenread by a reader.

Encode using BMC 55: As noted above, the specifics of the BMC encodingis based on the ISO/IEC 7813 standard. The binary stream generated bysteps 41-53 is encoded using the BMC standard. The resulting stream isapplied to the coils for tracks 1 and 2 so that when the coil is sensedby a card reader, it appears to the reader to be a magnetic track of thetype used by payments cards so as to emulate the magnetic track for theselected payment card.

During operation, circuits inside the card receive user input from oneor more buttons 19 or equivalent placed on the card, and pass thereceived inputs to MCU 25 for handling. Information is provided to theuser using one or more LEDs 21 also placed on the card. The LEDs mayalso be placed to illuminate the card near the buttons to illuminate thebuttons when in a dark location. In one embodiment, text or othermessages can be provided by display 27 which may be implemented using asmall thin LCD screen, electronic display, e-ink, Electrophoreticdisplay, or electronic ink display. The specific information provided bydisplay 27 is not important for a proper understanding of the invention,but could include items such as images, numbers, text, such as creditcard numbers, CVV codes, and network names Visa, MasterCard, and thelike. Appropriate programming of MCU 25 would enable display 27 tooperate as desired.

To indicate that the reader and card are properly interfacing, an LEDwill flash during the read operation.

A card functioning according to the invention operates as follows. Whenthe user selects the card to use and enters the unlock password on phoneor electronic card via buttons 19, or both, the card will be unlockedfor a predetermined period of time such as 8 minutes. After this time, asignal from MCU 25 will erase all sensible data from the card memory(except default card information) and re-lock again. The user can alsoconfigure the card to self-lock after a successful transaction. Forexample, if the card is used on a mobile point of sale device, it willbe locked instantly, to avoid cloning scams. Most of the securityfeatures are user-configurable, enabling the user to select how securehe/she wants his/her electronic card to be.

The MCU can be programmed to enable to buttons and LEDs to operate in adesired manner so that, for example, pressing one button for apredetermined period of time such as three seconds turns the card on oroff, with the LEDs flashing to confirm presses, etc.

The card can transmit data to the phone when it is near the NFC field,so it can report a hack attempt only on that moment. The card has theoption to be pin activated, and will lock if the incorrect code is usedtoo many times in a certain timeframe. The electronic card may store alist of transactions that will be transmitted to an application on thephone or other external device. With this information, the user canbecome aware of the card being read two times on an ATM, meaning that acloning device may have been used. The user may also use a “recall”option on the card, which transfers the card data that was last on thecard from the phone to the card without opening the phone application.The card must still be near the phone for the data transfer. The“recall” option may request a user to type in a code or pin on the cardor smart phone application.

The invention may be implemented using a different layout, materials orchips. For example, the LED lights may be in the center of the card thatilluminates the see-through portions of the card. The LEDs and touchsensors or buttons can be made of different materials, and may be ondifferent areas of the card with different spacing and more or fewerLEDs or more/fewer touch sensors or buttons.

As previously noted, if the phone of the user is not available to loadthe card data into the card, a real credit card/debit card called a“default card” can be embedded. Touch sensors (which may be buttonswhich can be pressed and released or touch sensitive devices) will notallow the user to select several different cards that are already storedon the electronic card. They are used to activate a pin for the card,which then activates the default card. There is also a power button orthe like for the card, which turns it on for a set amount of time. Thedefault card could also be a gift card, or a rewards card from a store,or a prepaid card. One could have the default card be a prepaid cardthat charges users every time they load money onto it. There are severalpossibilities for the default card: The default card is programmed intothe electronic card and can be activated when a user enters a userdefined pin using the buttons on the card. For example, the MCU can beprogrammed so that the user will need to press the a specific one of thebuttons for three seconds, or other time period, to wake it up and getelectronic card into waiting mode in which case one of the LEDs willflash to indicate that the card is waiting for further input. If nothingis entered within a preset timeframe, the card is placed in idle modeagain. If the user enters the code during the allowed period, it willuse a secure algorithm to check if it is correct and flash one of theLEDs or, if it is not correct another one of the LEDs is flashed. If thepin is entered wrong three or some other number of times the card willlock itself for a period of time. After that period, and there arefurther failed pin attempts, the LED becomes solid and the card locksand goes into “fraud alert”. The phone application is updated with afraud alert next time the phone is paired with the card. If a card swipeis detected at a payment terminal, the network notifies the applicationwith a fraud alert protocol.

The default card could be included on the plastic that encapsulates thechips. Display 27 could be used to show numbers representing the cardaccount number of the default account.

All the information transmitted between the card and the application onthe phone are encrypted with high standards to avoid “man in the middle”attacks or data leak/manipulation, or other attacks.

The card can mimic most credit/debit/rewards/magnetic stripe cards. Auser is provided with a device such as a Square reader available fromSquare, Inc. that can connect to a smart phone that can read paymentcards via a magnetic stripe reader that allows users to “load” ortransfer magnetic stripe information to a smart phone (or computer orother device). Alternatively, the user can manually enter the cardinformation using a phone application which stores the entered data inthe same manner as if the card had been swiped. The application has manyfunctions described above. The phone then connects to the electroniccard and instructs a NFC chip in the phone to connect to NFC unit 13 inthe electronic card to transfer card and usage data. The applicationalso instructs the phone to connect to servers to upload/download cardand usage information. The application may also connect to otherapplications in the phone to upload purchases, or a GPS application forlocation. The application has secure functions so other applicationscannot hack into the phone data, or the network.

The phone's camera can be used as a retina scanner. A fingerprint readercan also be incorporated on the card, a phone case, or on the phone. Auser may be able to customize how cards are displayed by the phoneapplication; such as which card data can be displayed, which picture isdisplayed to represent the card, and the layout of the application.

Purchase history may be uploaded when the card is near the phone. Forexample, “Card swiped at 05:23, Card inserted on dip reader at 06:01,Contactless used at 08:37, etc” (or similar scheme) The phoneapplication will show how many transactions has been made, time ofunlocks, stored cards, etc. A computer based application may also beutilized. Of course it will allow recording of the adding and deletingof cards from the Smartphone app. There is also a direct marketingoption with the app. The electronic card has the ability to collect ausers payment details for added security against card skimmers, but itcan be used for advertising purchases as well. A user could be offeredan extra reward incentive to allow their entire payment history to beused for advertising purposes.

The phone or card may transmit location of the card, phone, or when thephone is activated to servers or to the user. Specifically, when a usertransmits data to the electronic card from the application, the phonelocation will be recorded. This location will help to determine thecurrent location where the card is being used.

All the data is encrypted with unique codes/keys and sent to a secureserver for storage. A unique identifier may be stored on every card, soit is hard to clone or use the user's card if the data is ever leakedfrom the secure server.

If another electronic card is placed near a user phone it has not beenauthenticated to, it will be rejected and it will not receive any cardinformation as the unique identifier will not match with the user'scard.

When card data is successfully added to the database, the user is ableto load this data in the electronic card which can then mimic theoriginal card when desired as described. As noted above, after card datais loaded it will be wiped after a predetermined period of time. If theuser wants to load the card data again he/she just need to place thecard near his phone. The user would select which card data he would liketo load into his electronic card by choosing it on the phoneapplication, and if the card is near the phone, the data will betransferred to the card. The user may also use a “recall” option on thecard, which transfers the card data that was last on the one card fromthe phone to the card without opening the application. The card muststill be near the phone for the data transfer.

Information required to emulate the cards will be gathered fromcustomers' cards by using a provided device as described above andsecurity measures employed to avoid using the device to doskimming/fraud/scams. Customers may need to input some data manually.Customers will be required to pass security steps in order tosuccessfully add his/her real card to a device emulation list. There areseveral possible steps that are optional:

-   -   1. Current credit card magnetic stripes have the user's        information embedded in the first section of the card. Users may        be allowed to upload only cards with only the user's name on the        magnetic stripe of the card they are loading. There are several        sections of data in magnetic stripes which may be used to verify        that a credit card belongs to a correct user.    -   2. A deposit may be made into, and then subtracted from the        credit card account that was just loaded into the network. Then        the user is asked to verify the amount to ensure the card        account belongs to them.    -   3. The name on the card may be matched with the current mobile        phone account, email or other account to verify the card loaded        is the correct card.

All the information stored in the servers, user's device, user'sphone/computer, etc. can be encrypted with the strongest algorithmavailable using private/public keys generated from user input making itnear impossible for third parties to get the information from the users'cards if they get access to the data. Most of the data can be stored onthe servers. Credit card information from the servers may be paired withpartial credit card information stored on the phone.

The card may be manufactured many ways, and can be manufactured to givethe card many different appearances. One method is to laminate thechips, battery and magnetic emulator (i.e., cover with plastic film).The lamented configuration could then be surrounded by melted plastic(PVC, etc.), to make it look more like a common credit card. The chipconfiguration could be encapsulated in two (or more or less) kinds ofplastic to give it an appearance similar to a normal magnetic stripecard. Two different types of plastic, one clear, one another color (orclear) could be pre-molded to encapsulate the card (i.e., two thinpieces of plastic would be hollow). The edges of where the twopre-molded pieces of plastic meet could be soldered together. The twopieces of plastic could also clip, or connect together without needingsoldering. For example one of the pieces of pre-molded plastic wouldhave small pieces that are extended at the edge to go into the otherpremolded plastic that had holes or grooves for the small pieces enter.The two pieces could also meet at a light that also serves as an anchorto hold the two pieces together and also immuninate the clear portion ofthe outside mold. Also, clear PVC or other encapsulating material couldbe applied to the chips and battery in layers.

1. A system for performing credit card and debit card transactionscomprising: a) a card having a predetermined form factor; b) a batteryunit disposed on said card; c) a near field communications unit disposedon said card; d) a magnetic stripe emulator disposed on said card; e) atleast one programmable magnetic band disposed on said card; f) amicrocomputer unit disposed on said card; g) at least one buttondisposed on said card; wherein said battery supplies power to saidmicrocomputer unit which is electrically coupled to said near fieldcommunications unit, and said at least one button, and saidmicrocomputer unit is configured to operate said magnetic stripeemulator to send signals to said at least one programmable magnetic bandand said near field communications unit based on signals received fromsaid at least one button and said near field communications unit, saidsignals sent to said at least one programmable magnetic band forgenerating a desired set of magnetic pulses by said at least oneprogrammable magnetic band.
 2. The system defined by claim 1 furthercomprising a display for displaying at least one of images, text, andnumbers based on operation of said at least one button and microcomputerunit.
 3. The system defined by claim 1 further comprising at least oneLED for displaying status information based on operation of said atleast one button and microcomputer unit.
 4. The system defined by claim1 further comprising a set of contacts disposed on said card forreceiving energy from an external charging device.
 5. The system definedby claim 4 comprising a battery management unit disposed on said cardconfigured to receive energy from at least one of said near fieldcommunications unit and said contacts and send said received energy tosaid battery for charging said battery.
 6. The system defined by claim 1wherein said at least one programmable magnetic band comprises at leastone coil formed by a ferromagnetic core and at least one electricallyconductive wire having a non-conductive coating wrapped around saidcore.
 7. The system defined by claim 1 wherein said magnetic stripeemulator operates to emulate a track represented in ASCII characters,and generates a bit stream using one of an IATA and ABA standard whichgenerates an encoded magnetic field using said programmable magneticband.
 8. The system defined by claim 1 wherein said microcomputer unitis configured to: retrieve data needed to be represented on the magnetictrack from at least one of a remote server, a local memory, a mobiledevice coupled to the near field communications unit; concatenate theretrieved data and add sentinel and separator characters; generate alongitudinal redundancy check (LRC) using the other characters beingemulated to be represented on the magnetic track; generate a binarystream using at least one of an IATA standard and an ABA standard;append a plurality of “0” bits to the binary stream for synchronization;encode the binary stream generated using Bi-phase (BMC) encoding; sendsaid encoded signals to said at least one programmable magnetic band forgenerating said desired set of magnetic pulses.
 9. A method forperforming credit card and debit card transactions comprising: a)generating signals for emulating a magnetic stripe of the type used oncredit cards and debit cards by operation of a microcomputer disposed ona card having a predetermined form factor for use as at least one of adebit card and credit card; b) sending said generated signals to atleast one programmable magnetic band disposed on said card; c)generating a desired set of magnetic pulses using said generated signalssent to said at least one programmable magnetic band; d) providing powerused by said microcomputer and said at least one programmable magneticband by a battery unit disposed on said card; e) said microcomputer unitconfigured to operate said magnetic stripe emulator by sending saidsignals to said at least one programmable magnetic band and a near fieldcommunications unit disposed on said card based on signals received fromat least one button disposed on said card and said near fieldcommunications unit.
 10. The method defined by claim 9 furthercomprising displaying at least one of images, text, and numbers based onoperation of said at least one button and microcomputer unit.
 11. Themethod defined by claim 9 further displaying status information using atleast one LED based on operation of said at least one button andmicrocomputer unit.
 12. The method defined by claim 9 further comprisingreceiving energy from an external charging device from a set of contactsdisposed on said card.
 13. The method defined by claim 12 furthercomprising receiving energy from at least one of said near fieldcommunications unit and said contacts using a battery management unitdisposed on said card and sending said received energy to said batteryfor charging said battery.
 14. The method defined by claim 9 whereinsaid at least one programmable magnetic band comprises at least one coilformed by a ferromagnetic core and at least one electrically conductivewire having a non-conductive coating wrapped around said core.
 15. Themethod defined by claim 9 wherein said magnetic stripe emulator operatesby emulating a track represented in ASCII characters, and generating abit stream using one of an IATA and ABA standard which generates anencoded magnetic field using said programmable magnetic band.
 16. Asystem for performing credit card and debit card transactionscomprising: a) a magnetic stripe emulator; b) at least one programmablemagnetic band electrically coupled to said emulator for generating adesired set of magnetic pulses; wherein said magnetic stripe emulator isconfigured to send signals to said at least one programmable magneticband to generate said desired set of magnetic pulses which are forcommunicating with a transaction terminal used to perform credit cardand debit card transactions.
 17. The system defined by claim 10 whereinsaid at least one programmable magnetic band comprises at least one coilformed by a ferromagnetic core and at least one electrically conductivewire having a non-conductive coating wrapped around said core.
 18. Thesystem defined by claim 10 wherein said magnetic stripe emulatoroperates to emulate a track represented in ASCII characters, andgenerates a bit stream using one of an IATA and ABA standard whichgenerates an encoded magnetic field using said programmable magneticband.
 19. The system defined by claim 10 wherein said signals comprise:a binary stream using at least one of an IATA standard and an ABAstandard; a plurality of “0” bits appended to the binary stream forsynchronization, wherein said binary stream is generated using Bi-phase(BMC) encoding and are provided to said at least one programmablemagnetic band for generating said desired set of magnetic pulses. 20.The system defined by claim 10 wherein said magnetic stripe emulator isconfigured to: retrieve data needed to be represented on the magnetictrack from at least one of a remote server, a local memory, and a mobiledevice; concatenate the retrieved data and add sentinel and separatorcharacters; generate a longitudinal redundancy check (LRC) using theother characters being emulated to be represented on the magnetic track;generate a binary stream using at least one of an IATA standard and anABA standard; append a plurality of “0” bits to the binary stream forsynchronization; encode the binary stream generated using Bi-phase (BMC)encoding; send said encoded signals to said at least one programmablemagnetic band for generating said desired set of magnetic pulses.
 21. Amethod for performing credit card and debit card transactionscomprising: a) generating signals for emulating a magnetic stripe of thetype used on credit cards and debit cards for use as a functionalequivalent of at least one of a debit card and credit card; b) sendingsaid generated signals to at least one programmable magnetic band; c)generating a desired set of magnetic pulses using said generated signalssent to said at least one programmable magnetic band.
 22. The methoddefined by claim 15 wherein said at least one programmable magnetic bandcomprises at least one coil formed by a ferromagnetic core and at leastone electrically conductive wire having a non-conductive coating wrappedaround said core.
 23. The method defined by claim 15 wherein saidmagnetic stripe emulator operates by emulating a track represented inASCII characters, and generating a bit stream using one of an IATA andABA standard which generates an encoded magnetic field using saidprogrammable magnetic band.
 24. The method defined by claim 15 whereinsaid magnetic stripe emulator operates by retrieving data needed to berepresented on the magnetic track from at least one of a remote server,a local memory, and a mobile device; concatenating the retrieved dataand adding sentinel and separator characters; generating a longitudinalredundancy check (LRC) using the other characters being emulated to berepresented on the magnetic track; generating a binary stream using atleast one of an IATA standard and an ABA standard; appending a pluralityof “0” bits to the binary stream for synchronization; encoding thebinary stream generated using Bi-phase (BMC) encoding; sending saidencoded signals to said at least one programmable magnetic band forgenerating said desired set of magnetic pulses.